Home > Soledad O'Brien Defends Stimulus: 'Didn't That to a Large Degree Help the Economy?'

Soledad O'Brien Defends Stimulus: 'Didn't That to a Large Degree Help the Economy?'

By

Matt Hadro

August 20, 2012 - 6:41pm

CNN's Soledad O'Brien defended the stimulus bill on Monday's Starting
Point, calling it a "big thing" that President Obama accomplished and
adding that police officers and firefighters kept their jobs because of
it.

"[I]f the stimulus hadn't been passed, then what would have happened to
the economy?" she threw a Democratic talking point at Rep. Mike Burgess
(R-Tex.). "Didn't that to a large degree help the economy? You're not
going to argue certainly that it didn't?" [Video below. Audio here[1].]

"And I think there are firefighters and teachers and police
officers whose jobs were kept, would not have had jobs, whose jobs
were kept because of the stimulus," she argued. "I think you could – we could do an entire
two-hour debate on the stimulus."

O'Brien's arguments stood out in her two interviews about Newsweek's
new cover attacking Obama. She asked tough questions of both Burgess
and her Democratic guest Rep. Richard Neal (Mass.), but her stimulus
defense left no room for dissent.

And she's stood up for the stimulus before. Back in June O'Brien asked if there should be another stimulus[2].
She cited a survey that was used by a Democratic-appointed CBO director
to defend the stimulus, and asked the question of President Obama's
deputy campaign manager.

"So, is the takeaway from this, the stimulus worked, so there should be
another stimulus?" O'Brien asked after tossing Stephanie Cutter a
Democratic talking point.

A transcript of the segment, which aired on August 20 on Starting Point, is as follows:

[7:05]

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Meantime, the cover of Newsweek is saying,
"Hit the Road, Barack: Why we need a new President." And of course, that's stirring
up a few flames, isn't it? Joining us this morning to talk about all of
that is Congressman Mike Burgess, he's a Republican from Texas, he's
the chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus, he's a doctor as
well. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us. We certainly
appreciate it. Let's talk a little bit about –

Rep. MIKE BURGESS, (R-Tex.): Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, good morning to you. This Niall Ferguson story, it's the cover story in Newsweek,
and I don't know if you had a chance to read it yet, but the headline's
pretty straight forward. It's called "Hit the Road, Barack: Why we need
a new President." So you can imagine where it goes from there. His
basic gist is that President Obama has not kept his promises. Paul
Krugman has a blog pointing out what he calls some of the factual errors
in it.

But his gist is there were promises, they haven't been kept up. And he
writes this: "In his inaugural address, Obama promised to 'not only to
create jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.' He promised to
'build roads and bridges, the electric grids, the digital lines that
feed our commerce and bind us together'. He promised to 'restore science
to its rightful place, wield technology's wonders to raise health
care's quality and lower its costs.' He promised to 'transform our
schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age'.
Unfortunately, the President's score card on every single one of those
bold pledges is pitiful."

That's just a little chunk, but the gist of the entire article is kind
of like that. Some people would say, completely unfair assessment when
you look some of the numbers, for example. Inherited a 7.8 unemployment
rate, went down to 10 unemployment rate in October of 2009. Do you think
that's a fair criticism of him, sir?

BURGESS: Well, you know, you go back to the first two years of this
administration and you just, as a member of the minority who really
couldn't affect much, you just really had to wonder, where was the
laser-like focus that, say, a Bill Clinton would have put on the
economy? We had an administration that was doing everything under the
sun but being concerned about jobs, after making those promises in the
inaugural address. We watched in the Joint Economic Committee, members
of the President's team come in, Christina Romer, Lawrence Summers, and
honestly they seemed lost at sea.

(Crosstalk)

O'BRIEN: The stimulus passed immediately. Wasn't that one of the first
things that happened? The stimulus was a big thing he got done.

BURGESS: The stimulus passed, and what have we found out in the years
since then? Some of these projects like Solyndra where dollars were
literally flowing out the door to people that had no business receiving
the money. And then obviously when the company couldn't make it, the
administration subordinated taxpayer loans to venture capitalists, which
was in direct violation of the law.

O'BRIEN: And I think there are firefighters and teachers and police
officers whose jobs were kept, would not have had jobs, whose jobs
were kept because of the stimulus. I think you could – we could do an entire
two-hour debate on the stimulus. We certainly don't have time for that
this morning.

BURGESS: But you had things like "Cash for Clunkers" and putting caulk
in people's windows that honestly had nothing to do with rebuilding the
economy. And these things almost seemed to be payoffs to people that had
supported the President during his 2008 campaign. There were much better
ways to go about this doing this. Mr. Oberstar, the chairman of the
Transportation Committee, begged for more funding to go into
infrastructure, and he got about seven percent of that trillion dollar
stimulus bill. It actually – if you're going to borrow money like that,
do it for capital improvements, not for operational expenses.

O'BRIEN: But if they hadn't – so let's do the reverse about it – if the
stimulus hadn't been passed, then what would have happened to the
economy? Didn't that to a large degree help the economy? You're not
going to argue certainly that it didn't?

BURGESS: I don't think that it did. And you look at some of the
projects that were started during that time, and they really did not
seem to be designed to improve the economy. The other aspect that was
unfortunate during those first two years is they spent so much time, the
administration spent so much time trying to link health care to the
economy, and in order to get the President's health care law passed. But
honestly when you look back at it, this has been one of the things that
has inhibited the recovery. It's been a wet blanket on job creation and
honestly is still a problem today two and a half years later, billions
of dollars spent on implementation –

O'BRIEN: So let me ask you a que – I'm sorry. Forgive me, I just want to understand
what you're – you're saying the stimulus has been a wet blanket on job
creation, you think the stimulus had slowed --

BURGESS: The Affordable Care Act was a wet blanket on job creation, and
it was a parallel track with the stimulus, the cap and trade bill and
the financial reg bill. All of those things were pushed by the President
in the first year and a half of his administration.

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